More Tragedy

This has got to be one of the worst years on record.

The past 12 months have absolutely been tragic: people passing on unexpectedly and dealing with the after-effects of such events. One only wonders when it'll all end ... just for a little while.

We lost Lincoln, my grandmother, an acquiantance from high school who was killed in the war (in Afghanistan), and now the terrible school bus accident that claimed 4 youths from an area school. Yesterday was also something to think about: Jason's 3-year anniversary of his death in Iraq. Thinking about all that tragedy and the people that we have lost is almost too much to bear.

Tuesday's news regarding the bus accident was surreal, only to find out later that 4 students had lost their lives. It was far more devastating than the bus accident that my own school district lived through a couple of years ago, in which a speeding car collided with a bus on a rural, gravel road. There were only just a few students left on the bus, but they walked away banged up. The driver of the speeding car was lucky to be alive.

In this most recent case, it seems that a young woman is at fault for running a stop sign and drove out into the main highway, colliding broadside with the bus, sending it spinning into a pick-up truck. The young woman has been arrested and charged with the four deaths -- including the fact that she does not hold a valid Minnesota driver's license.

It's tough "not to hate" the one to blame in this situation. It was a stupid act, a person with no regard to the rules. Never mind the fact that she is an illegal immigrant and is currently using a false name, this person should know better. I personally do not know what to feel in this situation, except for the sorrow that I feel for the families affected by the students who were killed and those who are still in the hospital recovering.

My head is just spinning from the events of the past year. Law enforcement officials may call this an "accident," but I call this plain ignorance on the young woman's part.